Take a Smartphone & Wrap a Car Around It

Tesla's Elon Musk is no longer the only gearhead thinking of the car as a smartphone. The perception of a car turning into a smartphone (or a smartphone turning into a car) is a prophecy fulfilling itself at 90 miles an hour.

LAS VEGAS — “I took a smartphone and wrapped a car around it.” That’s what Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, reportedly said in a private conversation with Amit Rohatgi, an executive at Imagination Technologies who loves cars and owns two Tesla’s Model S.

As I sit in keynotes, attend press briefings, and meet executives at this year’s International CES, I realize Tesla’s Musk is no longer the only gearhead thinking that way. The perception of a car turning into a smartphone (or a smartphone turning into a car) is a prophecy fulfilling itself at 90 miles an hour.

I’d have to admit, though, that calling a connected car “a smartphone on wheels” always makes me a little weary. Possibly because I've been here before.

News coming out of CES this year has begun to look a lot like the bulletins that used to come out at the Mobile World Congress in the early days of smartphones. Such stories range from new contracts with mobile service operators, killer service and apps development, details of a “brain” (SoC) that empowers infotainment systems, and a never-ending debate on which operating system is best positioned to dominate the “infotainment” platform.

At this year’s CES, evidence of smartphones subsuming cars are plenty. Look no further than the keynote speech by Audi’s Chairman Rupert Stadler Monday night.

The German carmaker brought AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega on stage, who announced that the carrier will provide 4G LTE connectivity in the new Audi A3 in the United States.

Along with AT&T Mobility’s CEO, Audi’s Stadler also trotted out Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Onstage, Huang said, “If we’re in the middle of the mobile computing revolution, then the car is the most advanced mobile computer we have.”

He took from his pocket the company’s modular infotainment board (MIB) module that powers Audio’s infotainment systems. That gave Huang a perfect segue way to talk up the company’s newly announced Tegra K1 “super” chip. He noted, “I can’t wait to see what Audi does with Tegra K1.”

CES this year also brought more announcements on partnership agreements between car companies and mobile operators.

General Motors said that beginning this summer 10 Chevrolet vehicles will have AT&T 4G LTE cellular connections as an option through the OnStar platform. GM also said that the majority of 2015 vehicles in the Chevy lineup will have the connection installed at launch.

Delphi, meanwhile, recently launched in partnership with Verizon Wireless 4G LTE connectivity “add-ons” to vehicles. Through Delphi’s cloud-based automotive connectivity system, users can remotely control, monitor and track their vehicles in real-time through a smartphone, said Kathy Winter, vice president of software and services at Delphi.

Car OEMs are cozying up with software developers more than ever before. Ford Motor Co., courting smartphone app developers, is launching what it claims as the industry first developer conference for automotive apps.

Automobiles having smartphone inbuilt is something that is going to happen very soon or may be already happening. No one can stop that. There is a big market to that and I already see many of many friends considering smartphone as their lives and keep updating status when driving.

It makes mroe sense to me to connect the two rather than have an additional smartphone that comes with a car. It used to be, in the early days of the PC market, people thought there would be phones that came with PCs as one integrated device. The reality is people dont necessarily want a second cell phone and they'll likely already have purchased a phone before getting a car.

@Sheetal, carmakers have a lot of different use-case scenarios to consider. Assuming a driver is bringing his smartphone into a car, the first choice car companies need to make is whether to support in their car an iPhone or Android phone.

And obviously, there is a third choice of embedded LTE connectivity right inside a car.

There were many announcements of car OEMs and cellular operators at CES.

As I talked to a Delphi executive, though, car OEMs are keenly aware that they need to support both iPhone and Android. (You don't want to alianate a customer just because your car doesn't have a place to plug your iPhone!) Delphi was showing off its connectivity box that exactly supports both.

I would agree about supporting all platforms, but you left out Windows. I would go further and say I would not want to see car makers alienate a customer because their carrier was also not supported. Hence, these AT&T partnerships worry me. I want to choose my own carrier and I'm pretty sure the rest of us do too.

This is a sign, to me, that these systems are very much in their infancy. For a while, they will need to be subsidized by carriers with big pockets. I don't anticipate this being a permanent thing. I can't see the future though, so I guess I'm just being hopeful that cars won't come with carrier lock-in forever.